Professional ratings
Retrospective reviews
Review scores
Source	Rating
All Music Guide to Jazz
Christgau's Record Guide	A−
Down Beat
Entertainment Weekly	A−
Los Angeles Times
MusicHound Jazz	3/5
Penguin Guide to Jazz
Pitchfork	9.9/10
The Rolling Stone Album Guide
Sputnikmusic	4/5

Live-Evil is an album of both live and studio recordings by American jazz musician Miles Davis. Parts of the album featured music from Davis' concert at the Cellar Door in 1970, which producer Teo Macero subsequently edited and pieced together in the studio. They were performed as lengthy, dense jams in the jazz-rock style, while the studio recordings were renditions of Hermeto Pascoal compositions. The album was originally released on November 17, 1971.

Along with live recordings from the Cellar Door (edited in the studio), Live-Evil features Davis's studio recordings at Columbia's Studio B, with different personnel, on February 6 and June 3–4, 1970. Though all compositions were originally credited to Miles Davis, the studio recordings "Little Church" ("Igrejinha"), "Nem Um Talvez" ("Not Even a Maybe") and "Selim" are by Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal, who also played with the Davis band on these tracks. "Inamorata" means "A Female Lover".

A number of famous jazz musicians feature on the album, including Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette. One of the key musicians on the album, John McLaughlin, was not a regular member of Miles Davis's band during the time of recording. Miles called McLaughlin at the last minute to join the band for the last of four nights they recorded live at the Cellar Door, as Miles was "looking for an element he hadn't quite nailed down" on the previous nights.

Davis had originally intended the album to be a spiritual successor to Bitches Brew, but this idea was abandoned when it became obvious that Live-Evil was "something completely different".

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Wikipedia